Little Need To Worry About Medfly For Now

ACROSS OSCEOLA

For such a small insect, the Mediterranean fruit fly's potential for damage is very big.

So big that government forces - surplus military helicopters and all - are mobilized to eradicate the pesky invader before it leaves Hillsborough County.

By all accounts, Osceola's crops are safe. But keep that jar of deadly malathion handy.

Thank goodness that the season isn't right for the infestation to spread this way.

And, I guess, we can thank our lucky stars that the state is going to use all the poison necessary to save Florida's $6 billion-a-year agriculture industry. It has been reported that the two-month effort may cost as much as $3 million.

The flies are not expected to get out of the Tampa area because Florida's harvests are nearly complete.

A call to Narcoossee citrus sage Orie Lee confirmed that there's no need for a local panic - yet.

''The harvest is finished for this year until next November or December. At that time, we'll have to see what will happen.''

If the state's efforts work, nothing should happen in this neck of the woods.

By the time there's fresh fruit on the trees, the pesky flies should be gone. You see, the flies need fruit to deposit eggs. Once infested, the produce rots and falls to the ground, where tiny, tiny (and disgusting) maggots develop into mature flies and start the 30-day cycle again.

Lee said pictures of infested fruit are not a pretty sight.

''If you see what it does to a piece of fruit or vegetable, you can't help but be concerned,'' Lee said.

Frankly, most people would be a put off by the prospect of produce infested with worms.

Lee added that the effects of a local produce quarantine would have a dramatic effect on those who raise fruit and vegetables.

If you want to worry along with the experts on the Medfly alert, you'll have to keep an eye out for an insect slightly smaller than a housefly. The flies have tiny black spots on the thorax right behind the head, white stripes on a yellow abdomen and brown-and-yellow wing patterns.

The experts say typical host plants include citrus, loquat, guava and Surinam cherry, but the total number of plants susceptible to damage exceeds 250 species.

While Medflies pose an immediate threat in Hillsborough County, in two or three years the brown citrus aphid may be a more serious local threat, Lee added.

The aphid, labeled a ''super pest'' by some, is working its way north on the wind and by ''hitchhiking'' at a rate of about 10 miles a month. The aphid is a tick-size, slow-flying insect found in many parts of the world. The aphid carries a virus that can be deadly to trees. Unlike outbreaks of the Medfly, a way to eradicate the aphids hasn't been discovered.

Aphids or Medflies? Time to start stockpiling poison and pest strips just to be safe.